LEXINGTON, Ky. (AP) Home games with defending national champion North Carolina and Final Four participant Louisville highlight the non-conference portion of Kentucky's basketball schedule, released Tuesday.<br>
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Kentucky, which went 28-6 last season and reached the Elite Eight, will host North Carolina on Dec. 3 and Louisville on Dec. 17. The Wildcats also will visit perennial power Kansas on Jan. 7 for their final non-conference game of the season.<br>
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Kentucky will open its season Nov. 13-14 by hosting two rounds of the Guardians Classic, a 16-team tournament that includes Texas, Iowa and West Virginia. Kentucky will play South Dakota State in the first round, with Wofford and Lipscomb also playing that night in Lexington.<br>
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The winners will play the next day, and the second-round winner will travel to Kansas City, Mo., for the final two rounds on Nov. 21-22.<br>
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Kentucky's other home dates are against Liberty on Nov. 25, High Point on Nov. 29 and Central Florida on Jan. 3. High Point is Kentucky coach Tubby Smith's alma mater, while Central Florida played in last season's NCAA tournament, losing in the first round to Connecticut.<br>
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The Wildcats will play Georgia State, a team that lost to Kentucky in Lexington last season, at Philips Arena in Atlanta on Dec. 6, and Indiana at the RCA Dome in Indianapolis four days later.<br>
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Kentucky's annual game in Louisville will be Dec. 23 against Iona. The Wildcats' annual game in Cincinnati will be Dec. 30 against Ohio, which lost to Florida in the first round of last season's NCAA tournament.<br>
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``It's another challenging non-conference schedule,'' Smith said in a statement. ``We're playing the second-winningest program of all time in North Carolina, the third-winningest in Kansas, plus Indiana and Louisville. Then there's the possibility of playing two games against Texas, Iowa or West Virginia if we advance far enough in the Guardians Classic.''<br>
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The Wildcats' two exhibition games, both at Rupp Arena, will be Nov. 2 against Northern State (S.D.), which made last season's NCAA Division II tournament, and Nov. 9 against Georgetown (Ky.), a nearby NAIA powerhouse.<br>
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Kentucky athletic department spokesman Scott Stricklin said the Wildcats' schedule should be completed sometime in August, when the Southeastern Conference typically releases its schedule.<br>
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(Copyright 2005 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)
